help treatment for shoulder injury?

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red marksman

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My horse went lame just under 3 weeks ago in his left shoulder. he had been out in the field the day before and we presume he must have pulled something being silly as when i rode him the next day he was uncomforatble to move forwards and i could feel a definite shortening of his stide in trot, although not obviously lame.
We kept him in and and i walked him out round the block which is about 15minutes for the next 3 days. with no significant improvemnt we then boxrested him for a further 4 days with a walk out in hand twice a day.
We took him to the vets who said these types of injury are the most difficult to treat/find as there is no apparant swelling and just a slight lameness. There was no signficant difference after a flexion. He was prescibed bute, 2 sachets for 3 days and then one for the two days. i was to ride him on the last day with the bute still in his system to feel the difference. i just rode him round the block and he walked out fine, forward and he felt like normal. i did this for the next two days taking him a longer hack with a couple of trots and he seemed to be on the mend. The vet had then told us to take him in the school when all the bute was out of his system to see how he was. there was definite improvemnt from the two weeks previous but after 15 minutes he was definately feeling it again! This was last Thursday.
On Fridayi rode him again just a walk and he seemed to be back to the start. i gave him the day off Saturday and then trotted him up yesterday and he seemed better so i took him a walk hack for about 45minutes. with a couple of trots in which he seemed okay and he loosened up as we headed back.
this morning however we trotted him up and there was definate nodding. more obvious in fact than when we took him to the vets . have rung vet who has given us another course of bute which definately made an improvement last time but this time i will bring him back to work much more slowly.
Any advice of what could be the cause? We're thinking it will just be a matter of time but i thought he would be back in work by now! so any tips on how to treat, would heat treatment help? we did it at first but have slackened off.
sorry for the long post
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If the diagnosis is a muscular injury I would recommend asking your vet for a referral to a physiotherapist who will be able to treat the muscle and give you a suitable exercise plan.
 
A couple of years ago a friend of mine's horse was finally diagnosed with an old, poorly healed shoulder injury. He was taken to a specialist hospital and given steroid injections deep into the shoulder. Apparently this isn't easy because it has to be so deep and getting the needle past all the muscle and other structures is pretty hairy. He had to have 2 sets of injections I think, with limited turnout in a flat paddock for ages but he made a very good recovery.

Sadly, a couple of years later, it reappeared and the outlook now isn't so good. I guess the prognosis depends on the original injury. Fingers crossed x
 
Hi

My horse tore a shoulder muscle years ago out cross countrying; it wasn't initially diagnosed as this so the messing (remedial shoeing!) may have prolonged the healing process. He took about a year to heal properly, the problem you have is that the shoulder has only the muscle attachments to support it so there is a lot of pressure on any muscle pulled.
I left him out in the field unridden for about 2 months and brought him back into work, it flared up again so I left him out until the following season and brought him back in to work. I had problems getting his jumping confidence back but my yard owner loose jumped him for me and he has never looked back. That was 8 years ago now, he gets stiff in it as he is getting older (16 this year) but we do stretches most days and this helps a lot.
As Rubyred says though, I would definately try and get a physio referral to assist with the healing to speed it up and give you a far more robust result...
 
Many thanks for all your suggestions- I think the physio is the way forward from what you have said. Will wait until he has finished this course of bute first and then get him checked over.
 
I would also recommend getting the physio out sometime soon to have a quick look over him... any way you could take him over to Mark Windsor at Ashbrook??? I know he has only just been out to Arkenfield so don't think he is due back there for a while, but might be worth giving Wayne a quick tinkle. Just thinking that Mark is a chiro too, so may be able to give you a better idea of what is going on in there
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Is it Spot or Rolo?
 
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